Tom Monteleone

Thomas "Tom" Monteleone (Hamilton, Ontario- March 1979 Hartford, Connecticut was a Canadian born mobster who was a shadowy suspect involved the 1978 Lufthansa heist. Tom is of no relation to author Thomas F. Monteleone.

Tom had a dual citizenship, for Canada and the United States, but mainly resided in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as a successful restaurateur.

Biography

Little is known about Tommy Monteleone, before Tom's alleged involvement in the Lufthansa heist, and drug trafficking business with Paul Vario and Jimmy Burke. Sometime in 1978 or 1979, Thomas purchased a restaurant called "The Player's Club" (now The Player's Club Bar & Restaurant) located at 13410 Southshore Boulevard in Wellington, Florida which was strategically located at the Palm Beach Polo Stadium. The restaurant was close to being condemned when Monteleone bought it and transformed it into a La Cosa Nostra hangout for Lucchese crime family and Gambino crime family soldiers when vacationing. Two known regular patrons of "The Player's Club" were Paul Vario and Jimmy Burke. Tom was a known associate of hustler and front-man Richard Eaton for whom Jimmy Burke would later be convicted of murdering in 1985.

uspected link to Lufthansa discovered

On February 18, 1979 when Richard "Richie" Eaton's frozen corpse was found gagged on the floor of an abandoned tractor trailer in a garbage filled lot, Brooklyn detectives Robert Kohler and James Shea found a phone book with a small address book that had Jimmy Burke's name in it. It was then discovered that Eaton met Burke and Vario at Monteleone's club where he approached the two on a major $250,000 cocaine deal. The police then surmised that Eaton, a friend of Monteleone helped in laundering the Lufthansa heist loot. When trying to verify their suspicions. Tommy Monteleone’s body was discovered by the FBI to have been picked up by the Sheriff’s Department. It was badly decomposed an a motorist who had stopped to relieve themselves found Monteleone in the grassy field shot to death somewhere in northeastern Ohio. It is thought that after the death of his semi-legitimate partner, Richard Eaton and his suspected girlfriend and accomplice Theresa Ferrara, he though he would be next and flee to Toronto, Ontario in Canada. It is suspected that Paul Vario ordered his death for knowing about the $250,000 cocaine buy that he cheated them on.It is suspected by the FBI and Nicholas Pileggi that Richard Eaton and Monteleone conspired together in an attempt to steal some or all of the Lufthansa heist loot, it is unknown if they were successful, but barely half of the loot was ever recovered. The other theory is that Monteleone and Richard Eaton teamed up and tried to sell the Lucchese crime family $250,000 worth of baking sugar that was to be passed off as cocaine. The FBI also concluded that the death of Tommy DeSimone and Paul Vario's mistress "Theressa Ferrara" is suggested to have been murdered and dismembered for her involvement with Richard in both suspected plots. Ferrara shows more reasoning to the cocaine rip-off because of her criminal record as a drug trafficker and a Ozone Park,Queens New York District Attorney informant.

Investigation into Monteleone and associate prove fruitless

Following a thorough investigation Tommy Monteleone, his Fort Lauderdale business associate Richard Eaton and Eaton's girlfriend Theresa Ferrara's involvement in the Lufthansa heist was never definitely figured out, if any. Jimmy Burke was eventually convicted for the murder of Richard Eaton in 1985 with the help of Henry Hill to whom he confessed to the killing. Thomas Monteleone's murder was never officially solved. It is most likely he was murdered by Jimmy Burke or Angelo John Sepe.

References:

*Pileggi, Nicholas, "Wiseguy: Life In A Mafia Family", Corgi (1987) ISBN 055213094X